The President’s Budget: Neglected Tropical Diseases

Feb 1st, 2010 5:04 PM UTC
By Erin Hohlfelder

In a period of intense fiscal restraint, domestically and globally, there are going to be many global health and development advocates that are displeased by the release of President Obama’s FY2011 Budget Request today. But as one of ONE’s newest employees—and only a month out from my previous job doing policy work for the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases—President Obama’s request of $155 million for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is a huge step forward in an area that has been underfunded in the past.

At ONE, we recognize that there is no silver bullet to fighting poverty in Africa and across the developing world; similarly there is no one intervention that will ensure that those living in poverty can enjoy good and sustainable health. Yet the scale of the NTD infections around the world—more than one billion people are infected—also suggests that a growing US financial commitment to NTD control means we can make a cross-cutting impact on the diseases that are perhaps the most common denominator for the world’s poorest people.

The NTD story is a remarkable one: thanks to unprecedented donation programs from major pharmaceutical companies, we can treat all seven of the most common NTDs for just 50 cents per person, per year. Hundreds of millions of people have benefitted from this simple, cost-effective treatment; 546 million people were treated for one NTD (elephantiasis) alone in 2007! Yet these diseases still remain largely unknown. Advocacy groups including the Global Network work to promote global awareness, and the Gates Foundation dedicates substantial funding to support the creation of regional financing mechanisms to absorb new investments for NTDs. Still, many leaders across the public and private sectors have a difficult time advocating and providing funding for diseases with bizarre names like “schistosomiasis.”

That’s where high level leadership comes in. Though President Bush was better-known for his landmark investments in HIV/AIDS, he also made the US’ first major commitment to NTDs, recommending that $350 million over five years be dedicated to NTD control and elimination efforts. With the Global Health Initiative and now in his budget, President Obama has transitioned and grown President Bush’s work on NTDs, and has signaled that the US can be a leader in NTD control efforts, including a push for elimination targets around lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, and leprosy.

The magnitude of NTDs is so great—approximately one in six people worldwide are infected—that the problem can seem daunting or intractable. But particularly at a point in which funding for other global accounts was not as high as we hoped, ONE members can applaud President Obama for his expanded commitment to NTD control and for ensuring that the US can one day claim a major role in the elimination of many of these horrific diseases.

We’ll have more analysis of President Obama’s FY2011 Budget soon.

TAGS: FY2011 US budget, Neglected Tropical Diseases, ONE, Policy News